NEWSFLASH: We are all sinners! No one is perfect and not a single one of us walks around sinless. SURPRISE!
Our God is very strict. He does not change His mind. He is the same yesterday, tomorrow and forever. God has not changed and neither have His requirements to enter His kingdom. No unclean thing can dwell with God, not one. Yet, He wants all of his children to return to live with him after this life. How is this possible? Sinning makes us unclean and unworthy to dwell in his kingdom, and we are so imperfect that it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to perfectly live Gods commandments. Even when we do our very best we still fall short one way or another. No one has ever lived a perfect life. Except, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We have accepted Christ as the Son of God. We know He was perfect, walked on water, and fed hundreds with one piece of bread. We accept Christ as our Savior at baptism, making a promise to always remember Christ and take upon us His holy name. However, sometimes we get overwhelmed, and overlook what He really has done for us. His atonement allows us to be perfect RIGHT NOW. We alone can never be perfect, but if we form a personal relationship with Christ, and make him our better half, we can have perfection through Christ. As a convert I have recently been struggling with this concept, and I am sure many other members of the church have too! While reading the book, Believing Christ, by, Stephen E Robinson, I have grasped a large portion of the atonement that I have been missing.
There are two things that have stuck with me since reading this book, and I am writing this blog to expand on my feelings about them.
In Isiah 1:18 it says, "Come now, and let us reason together saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Robinson explains this scripture so brilliantly! He continues to expand on Isiah 1:18. The Lord is saying here, " It doesnt matter what you did. Whatever it was, no matter how horrible or vile, is not the issue. The issue here is whatever your sin was or is, I can erase it, I can clean you up and make you innocent, pure, and worthy, and I can do it today; I can do it now!"
This is the incredible power of the atonement! I feel sometimes we over look this point: Christ can save us. He can help us be perfect. He can make us perfect, by allowing Him into our lives and making him our better half. We can not save ourselves. I have learned this myself! Without Christ, I was drowning in a pool of my own sorrow, and I could not swim. Note, I am a very good swimmer! God loves us so much he gave us his only begotten son. The atonement is the single greatest gift given to us, one that we can not pay back. Unless, we utilize it daily, and humbly ask for the Lord's help.
Sometimes as a convert, I feel this extra pressure to be a really awesome member of the church. I try really hard to be a good example, and sometimes, I take everything upon my shoulders. I share the gospel as much as I can, I attend every activity (I have maybe missed 4 since I was baptized), I give rides to and from activities, offer help when needed, and sometimes it gets overwhelming! I start to forget my need to have daily repentance, and be humble. Life gets busy and I have had several experiences where I felt like I just couldn't live up to the expectations given. That is when I realized; I believe in Christ, but do I BELIEVE he is my savior and he can really do all of these things? Do I honestly have faith and trust in the Lord? After all, it is only through him and his grace that I can return to my father.
Later in the book, we here the story of the bicycle.
Robinson's daughter, who was pretty young at the time, came to him one day and pleaded, very innocently, to receive a bike of her own. All the kids on the block had one, and she wanted one too. Being in a bit of a financial crisis at the time, he tells her that if she saves up all her pennies, she will eventually be able to buy her own bike. He knew that by the time she really did save enough pennies to buy a bike, she would be saving for a car, but it was a good enough answer for her and she let him bee.
A few weeks later, while reading the paper, he peeks over to see his daughter helping his wife with some chores around the house. When she finishes, she runs up the stairs, and comes back down a few moments later with a jar full of pennies. The first thing she does is bring it to her daddy, and say "You promised, that if I saved all my pennies I could get a bike!" Of course, daddy cant say no to those big puppy dog eyes, and agrees to take her down town to look at bikes.
After all day of searching, she finally sees it- the bike she was destined to have in the pre-existence! She hops on, with a huge smile on her cute little face. She then grabs for the price tag. Tears swell in her eyes as she tells her dad that she will never have enough money for the bike. He says to her, "how much money do you have?" she looks at him wistfully, and says, ".61 cents."
Do you see where this is going?
He gets to eye level, and explains that if she gives him all she has, all of her 61 cents, a hug and a kiss, he will cover the rest of the cost for the bike.
The two examples above give a perfect outlook on the atonement, and how powerful it really is.
All that is asked of us is to have faith. Have faith in our savior and trust that whatever we cant do on or own, he will cover. Have faith in his atoning sacrifice, repent of our mistakes, and try again. Do whatever is in our power, to follow the commandments to the best of our ability, and lean on the gift of the atonement to bring us to perfection; no matter how sinful we are. All of us are in the same boat, and in the gospel covenant we agree to do all that we can do. We will never be able to do all that is required, so we give our savior our best efforts, and in return, some day we will all be made perfect. Our mistakes are covered, as long as we do our part.
Robinson goes to explain the gospel and the atonement using tithing as an example.
Tithing is the principle within the gospel that asks each of the members of the church to give 10% of their annual income to the church. For those who aren't members and are not familiar with this practice, the money goes to building meeting houses, temples, general missionary funds and so fourth.
Anyway, everyone is asked to give 10% of all they have. Whether you have $100 or .61 cents, the amount is not what matters. What matters is, we give all we can to the Lord, in return for his help reaching perfection. He basically says, "Give me all that you can give. Give me your .61 cents, grow and form a personal relationship with me (a hug and a kiss) and I will take care of the rest."
the last time I paid tithing it was the smallest amount I had ever paid before. All my bills happened to be due that week, and my pay check was the smallest it had ever been. I really didn't have enough to cover all of my bills and take care of myself, but I still made sure I gave 10% to the Lord, with intense prayers, hoping I could get the help.
I paid my tithing, managed to pay all of my bills, and automatically thought of "prove me here with..."
I felt guilty paying such a short amount of tithing, I felt like I was robbing the Lord of what I had. I learned though, that it wasn't the dollar amount that mattered to him. What mattered, was that I had FAITH. I trusted in his counsel, obeyed his commandants, and after I did all I could do, he took care of me. he lifted that weight right off of me, and made me new, and clean once again.
I have been pondering the reality of the atonement for quiet some time now. Reading this book has given me incredible insight, and I felt impressed to share a tiny bit of what I have learned with all of you.
All of our efforts will never be enough, unless we allow Christ to take care of the debt we owe. He wants to do those things for us, He offered himself to pay our debt, and be our Savior. I know that Jesus Christ is my redeemer, He has made me a new person, and with his help, I become a tiny little bit more perfect every day. I know I wont reach perfection for a very long time, even after death, but because I know the atonement was real, I have faith that my savior will pick me up, and carry me when I can not walk any further. God loves us all so much, he knows our struggles, our pains and our sorrows. He has given us a way to have those burdens lifted, and that way is only through Jesus Christ.
This gospel blesses me with a daily opportunity to be made new, and to inch my way to eternal salvation. I know that because of the atonement I can return to live with God, with my family, glowing with eternal glory. I am so blessed to know these truths, and to have this gospel in my life!
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